1. Field of the Invention:
The present invention relates to a camera having a zoom lens, and more particularly to a zoom lens operation display device for such a camera.
2. Description of the Relevant Art:
Cameras with motor-driven zoom lenses have been developed and are now in wide use today. There has also been developed a camera with a motor-driven zoom lens which can operate in various modes, i.e., a manual zoom mode in which zooming movement of the zoom lens is manually achieved by the user, a motor-driven zoom mode in which the zoom lens is zoomed by a motor, and a control zoom mode such as a fixed-magnification zoom mode in which zooming movement of the zoom lens is automatically controlled so that the image of an object on a photographic film in the camera has a fixed size irrespective of the distance from the camera to the object.
Typically, a zoom lens has a variable focal length over a predetermined focal length range, which has ends or limits corresponding to the longest and the shortest focal length of the zoom lens.
The conventional camera of the above type is however unable to give indications of the ends of the focal length range of the zoom lens, i.e., a tele end at which the focal length of the zoom lens is longest, and a wide end at which the focal length of the zoom lens is shortest. Without such indications, the user of the camera may become anxious about the operation of the camera. For example, when the zoom lens reaches the tele or wide end during automatic zooming movement in the fixed-magnification zoom mode, the zoom lens is automatically stopped. Since the camera gives no indication or display of these conditions at this time, the user is highly likely to misunderstand the stoppage of the zoom lens as a failure.
In the motor-driven zoom mode, the user gets no tactile assurance when the zoom lens reaches the tele or wide end, and hence cannot easily recognize the tele or wide end as it is reached by the zoom lens. If the user were given indications as to the tele or wide end in the motor-driven zoom mode, the user would find it easier and more efficient to use the camera.
Conventional cameras with motor-driven zoom lenses do not indicate zoom lens operating conditions such as the direction in which the zoom lens is moved and the selected mode of operation of the zoom lens. When the fixed-magnification zoom mode is selected, the zoom lens is automatically driven. If the user forgets the fact that the camera is in the fixed-magnification zoom mode, then it will be possible for the camera to produce a picture which is not intended by the user. Therefore, the user should be careful enough not to forget the fixed-magnification zoom mode once it is selected.
In the motor-driven zoom mode, the zoom lens starts to move when the user pushes a zoom switch. When the object to be photographed is dark, however, the user may not easily visually recognize whether the image formed in the viewfinder is being enlarged or reduced in size, and hence may not easily determine the direction in which the zoom lens is moving, i.e., whether the zoom lens is moving toward the tele end or the wide end.